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$Title{History Of Herodotus, The
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$Date{1909}
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Title:       History Of Herodotus, The
Book:        Sixth Book, Entitled Erato
Author:      Herodotus
Date:        1909
Translation: Rawlinson, George

Part V

     109. The Athenian generals were divided in their opinions; and some
advised not to risk a battle, because they were too few to engage such a host
as that of the Medes, while others were for fighting at once; and among these
last was Miltiades.  He therefore, seeing that opinions were thus divided, and
that the less worthy counsel appeared likely to prevail, resolved to go to the
polemarch, and have a conference with him.  For the man on whom the lot fell
to be polemarch ^2 at Athens was entitled to give his vote with the ten
generals, since anciently ^3 the Athenians allowed him an equal right of
voting with them.  The polemarch at this juncture was Callimachus of Aphidnae;
to him therefore Miltiades went, and said: -

[Footnote 2: The Polemarch, or War-Archon, was the third archon in dignity.]

[Footnote 3: When Herodotus wrote, the polemarch had no military functions at
all.]

     "With thee it rests, Callimachus, either to bring Athens to slavery, or,
by securing her freedom, to leave behind thee to all future generations a
memory beyond even Harmodius and Aristogeiton.  For never since the time that
the Athenians became a people were they in so great a danger as now.  If they
bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the woes which they will have
to suffer when given into the power of Hippias are already determined on; if,
on the other hand, they fight and overcome, Athens may rise to be the very
first city in Greece.  How it comes to pass that these things are likely to
happen, and how the determining of them in some sort rests with thee, I will
now proceed to make clear.  We generals are ten in number, and our votes are
divided; half of us wish to engage, half to avoid a combat.  Now, if we do not
fight, I look to see a great disturbance at Athens which will shake men's
resolutions, and then I fear they will submit themselves; but if we fight the
battle before any unsoundness show itself among our citizens, let the gods but
give us fair play, and we are well able to overcome the enemy.  On thee
therefore we depend in this matter, which lies wholly in thine own power.
Thou hast only to add thy vote to my side and thy country will be free, and
not free only, but the first state in Greece.  Or, if thou preferrest to give
thy vote to them who would decline the combat, then the reverse will follow."

     110. Miltiades by these words gained Callimachus; and the addition of the
polemarch's vote caused the decision to be in favour of fighting. Hereupon all
those generals who had been desirous of hazarding a battle, when their turn
came to command the army, gave up their right to Miltiades.  He however,
though he accepted their offers, nevertheless waited, and would not fight,
until his own day of command arrived in due course.

     111. Then at length, when his own turn was come, the Athenian battle was
set in array, and this was the order of it.  Callimachus the polemarch led the
right wing; for it was at that time a rule with the Athenians to give the
right wing to the polemarch. ^1 After this followed the tribes, according as
they were numbered, in an unbroken line; while last of all came the Plataeans,
forming the left wing.  And ever since that day it has been a custom with the
Athenians, in the sacrifices and assemblies held each fifth year at Athens, ^2
for the Athenian herald to implore the blessing of the gods on the Plataeans
conjointly with the Athenians.  Now, as they marshalled the host upon the
field of Marathon, in order that the Athenian front might be of equal length
with the Median, the ranks of the centre were diminished, and it became the
weakest part of the line, while the wings were both made strong with a depth
of many ranks. [Footnote 1: The right wing was the special post of honour
(vide infra, ix. 27).  The Polemarch took the post as representative of the
king, whose position it had been in the ancient times.]

[Footnote 2: The Panathenaic festival is probably intended.  It was hold every
fifth year (i.e. once in every four years, half-way between the Olympic
festivals), and was the great religious assembly of the Athenians.]

     112. So when the battle was set in array, and the victims showed
themselves favourable, instantly the Athenians, so soon as they were let go,
charged the barbarians at a run.  Now the distance between the two armies was
little short of eight furlongs.  The Persians, therefore, when they saw the
Greeks coming on at speed, made ready to receive them, although it seemed to
them that the Athenians were bereft of their senses, and bent upon their own
destruction; for they saw a mere handful of men coming on at a run without
either horsemen or archers.  Such was the opinion of the barbarians; but the
Athenians in close array fell upon them, and fought in a manner worthy of
being recorded.  They were the first of the Greeks, so far as I know, who
introduced the custom of charging the enemy at a run, and they were likewise
the first who dared to look upon the Median garb, and to face men clad in that
fashion.  Until this time the very name of the Medes had been a terror to the
Greeks to hear.

     113. The two armies fought together on the plain of Marathon for a length
of time; and in the mid battle, where the Persians themselves and the Sacae
had their place, the barbarians were victorious, and broke and pursued the
Greeks into the inner country; but on the two wings the Athenians and the
Plataeans defeated the enemy.  Having so done, they suffered the routed
barbarians to fly at their ease, and joining the two wings in one, fell upon
those who had broken their own centre, and fought and conquered them.  These
likewise fled, and now the Athenians hung upon the runaways and cut them down,
chasing them all the way to the shore, on reaching which they laid hold of the
ships and called aloud for fire.

     114. It was in the struggle here that Callimachus the polemarch, after
greatly distinguishing himself, lost his life; Stesilaus too, the son of
Thrasilaus, one of the generals, was slain; and Cynaegirus, the son of
Euphorion, having seized on a vessel of the enemy's by the ornament at the
stern, ^1 had his hand cut off by the blow of an axe, and so perished; as
likewise did many other Athenians of note and name.

[Footnote 1: The ornament at the stern consisted of wooden planks curved
gracefully in continuance of the sweep by which the stern of the ancient ship
rose from the sea.  Vessels were ordinarily ranged along a beach with their
sterns towards the shore, and thus were liable to be seized by the
stern-ornament.  [See Rich, Dict. of Antiquities. - E. H. B.]]

     115. Nevertheless the Athenians secured in this way seven of the vessels;
while with the remainder the barbarians pushed off, and taking aboard their
Eretrian prisoners from the island where they had left them, doubled Cape
Sunium, hoping to reach Athens before the return of the Athenians.  The
Alcmaeonidae were accused by their countrymen of suggesting this course to
them; they had, it was said, an understanding with the Persians, and made a
signal to them, by raising a shield, after they were embarked in their ships.

     116. The Persians accordingly sailed round Sunium.  But the Athenians
with all possible speed marched away to the defence of their city, and
succeeded in reaching Athens before the appearance of the barbarians: ^1 and
as their camp at Marathon had been pitched in a precinct of Hercules, so now
they encamped in another precinct of the same god at Cynosarges. ^2 The
barbarian fleet arrived, and lay to off Phalerum, which was at that time the
haven of Athens; ^3 but after resting awhile upon their oars, they departed
and sailed away to Asia.

[Footnote 1: Marathon is six-and-twenty miles from Athens by the common
route.]

[Footnote 2: Supra, v. 63.  Cynosarges was situated very near the famous
Lycaeum, the school of Aristotle.]

[Footnote 3: Supra, v. 63.]

     117. There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the
barbarians, about six thousand and four hundred men; on that of the Athenians,
one hundred and ninety-two.  Such was the number of the slain on the one side
and the other.  A strange prodigy likewise happened at this fight.  Epizelus,
the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick of the fray, and behaving
himself as a brave man should, when suddenly he was stricken with blindness,
without blow of sword or dart; and this blindness continued thenceforth during
the whole of his after life.  The following is the account which he himself,
as I have heard, gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic warrior, with a
huge beard, which shaded all his shield, stood over against him; but the
ghostly semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his side.  Such, as I
understand, was the tale which Epizelus told. ^4

[Footnote 4: According to Plutarch, Theseus was seen by a great number of the
Athenians fighting on their side against the Persians.]

     118. Datis meanwhile was on his way back to Asia, and had reached
Myconus, ^5 when he saw in his sleep a vision.  What it was is not known; but
no sooner was day come than he caused strict search to be made throughout the
whole fleet, and finding on board a Phoenician vessel an image of Apollo
overlaid with gold, he inquired from whence it had been taken, and learning to
what temple it belonged, he took it with him in his own ship to Delos, and
placed it in the temple there, enjoining the Delians, who had now come back to
their island, to restore the image to the Theban Delium, ^6 which lies on the
coast over against Chalcis. Having left these injunctions, he sailed away; but
the Delians failed to restore the statue; and it was not till twenty years
afterwards that the Thebans, warned by an oracle, themselves brought it back
to Delium.

[Footnote 5: It lies between Tenos (Tino) and Icaria (Nikaria).]

[Footnote 6: This temple acquired a special celebrity from the defeat which
the Athenians suffered in its neighbourhood in the eighth year of the
Peloponnesian war, B.C. 424.  The name of Delium is said to have been given to
it because it was built after the model of Apollo's temple at Delos.]

     119. As for the Eretrians, whom Datis and Artaphernes had carried away
captive, when the fleet reached Asia, they were taken up to Susa. Now King
Darius, before they were made his prisoners, nourished a fierce anger against
these men for having injured him without provocation; but now that he saw them
brought into his presence, and become his subjects, he did them no other harm,
but only settled them at one of his own stations in Cissia - a place called
Ardericca - two hundred and ten furlongs distant from Susa, and forty from the
well which yields produce of three different kinds.  For from this well they
get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now describe:
They draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket make use of the half of a
wine-skin; with this the man dips, and after drawing, pours the liquid into a
reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another, and there takes three different
shapes. The salt and the bitumen forthwith collect and harden, while the oil
is drawn off into casks.  It is called by the Persians "rhadinace," is black,
and has an unpleasant smell.  Here then King Darius established the Eretrians;
and here they continued to my time, and still spoke their old language.  So
thus it fared with the Eretrians.

     120. After the full of the moon two thousand Lacedaemonians came to
Athens.  So eager had they been to arrive in time, that they took but three
days to reach Attica from Sparta.  They came, however, too late for the
battle; yet, as they had a longing to behold the Medes, they continued their
march to Marathon and there viewed the slain.  Then, after giving the
Athenians all praise for their achievement, they departed and returned home.

     121. But it fills me with wonderment, and I can in no wise believe the
report, that the Alcmaeonidae had an understanding with the Persians, and held
them up a shield as a signal, wishing Athens to be brought under the yoke of
the barbarians and of Hippias, - the Alcmaeonidae, who have shown themselves
at least as bitter haters of tyrants as was Callias, the son of Phaenippus,
and father of Hipponicus. ^1 This Callias was the only person at Athens who,
when the Pisistratidae were driven out, and their goods were exposed for sale
by the vote of the people, had the courage to make purchases, and likewise in
many other ways to display the strongest hostility.

[Footnote 1: Vide infra, vii. 151.]

     [122. He was a man very worthy to be had in remembrance by all, on
several accounts.  For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond others
in the cause of his country's freedom; but likewise, by the honours which he
gained at the Olympic games, where he carried off the prize in the horse-race,
and was second in the four-horse chariot-race, and by his victory at an
earlier period in the Pythian games, he showed himself in the eyes of all the
Greeks a man most unsparing in his expenditure.  He was remarkable too for his
conduct in respect of his daughters, three in number; for when they came to be
of marriageable age, he gave to each of them a most ample dowry, and placed it
at their own disposal, allowing them to choose their husbands from among all
the citizens of Athens, ^1 and giving each in marriage to the man of her own
choice. ^2]

[Footnote 1: In general the Athenian ladies - indeed, the Greek ladies without
exception - were not even asked to give their consent to the match prepared
for them.]

[Footnote 2: This chapter is generally regarded as an interpolation.  It is
wanting in several of the best Mss.]

     123. Now the Alcmaeonidae fell not a whit short of this person in their
hatred of tyrants, so that I am astonished at the charge made against them,
and cannot bring myself to believe that they held up a shield; for they were
men who had remained in exile during the whole time that the tyranny lasted,
and they even contrived the trick by which the Pisistratidae were deprived of
their throne. ^3 Indeed I look upon them as the persons who in good truth gave
Athens her freedom far more than Harmodius and Aristogeiton. ^4 For these last
did but exasperate the other Pisistratidae by slaying Hipparchus, ^5 and were
far from doing anything towards putting down the tyranny; whereas the
Alcmaeonidae were manifestly the actual deliverers of Athens, if at least it
be true that the Pythoness was prevailed upon by them to bid the
Lacedaemonians set Athens free, as I have already related.

[Footnote 3: Supra, v. 63.]

[Footnote 4: It is plain that Herodotus was of the same opinion as Thucydides
(vi. 54-59), that far too much honour was paid to the memory of these
persons.]

[Footnote 5: Supra, v. 55, 62.]

     124. But perhaps they were offended with the people of Athens; and
therefore betrayed their country.  Nay, but on the contrary there were none of
the Athenians who were held in such general esteem, or who were so laden with
honours.  So that it is not even reasonable to suppose that a shield was held
up by them on this account.  A shield was shown, no doubt; that cannot be
gainsaid; but who it was that showed it I cannot any further determine.

     125. Now the Alcmaeonidae were, even in days of yore, a family of note at
Athens; but from the time of Alcmaeon, and again of Megacles, they rose to
special eminence.  The former of these two personages, to wit, Alcmaeon, the
son of Megacles, when Croesus the Lydian sent men from Sardis to consult the
Delphic oracle, gave aid gladly to his messengers, and assisted them to
accomplish their task.  Croesus, informed of Alcmaeon's kindnesses by the
Lydians who from time to time conveyed his messages to the god, ^1 sent for
him to Sardis, and when he arrived, made him a present of as much gold as he
should be able to carry at one time about his person.  Finding that this was
the gift assigned him, Alcmaeon took his measures, and prepared himself to
receive it in the following way.  He clothed himself in a loose tunic, which
he made to bag greatly at the waist, and placing upon his feet the widest
buskins that he could anywhere find, followed his guides into the
treasure-house.  Here he fell to upon a heap of gold-dust, and in the first
place packed as much as he could inside his buskins, between them and his
legs; after which he filled the breast of his tunic quite full of gold, and
then sprinkling some among his hair, and taking some likewise in his mouth, he
came forth from the treasure-house, scarcely able to drag his legs along, like
anything rather than a man, with his mouth crammed full, and his bulk
increased every way. On seeing him, Croesus burst into a laugh, and not only
let him have all that he had taken, but gave him presents besides of fully
equal worth. Thus this house became one of great wealth; and Alcmaeon was able
to keep horses for the chariot-race, and won the prize at Olympia. ^2

[Footnote 1: Supra, i. 55.]

[Footnote 2: There are strong reasons for suspecting the whole of this story.]

     126. Afterwards, in the generation which followed, Clisthenes, king of
Sicyon, raised the family to still greater eminence among the Greeks than even
that to which it had attained before.  For this Clisthenes, who was the son of
Aristonymus, the grandson of Myron, and the great-grandson of Andreas, had a
daughter, called Agarista, whom he wished to marry to the best husband that he
could find in the whole of Greece.  At the Olympic games, therefore, having
gained the prize in the chariot-race, he caused public proclamation to be made
to the following effect: - "Whoever among the Greeks deems himself worthy to
become the son-in-law of Clisthenes, let him come, sixty days hence, or, if he
will, sooner, to Sicyon; for within a year's time, counting from the end of
the sixty days, Clisthenes will decide on the man to whom he shall contract
his daughter." So all the Greeks who were proud of their own merit or of their
country flocked to Sicyon as suitors; and Clisthenes had a foot-course and a
wrestling-ground made ready, to try their powers.

     127. From Italy there came Smindyrides, the son of Hippocrates, a native
of Sybaris - which city about that time was at the very height of its
prosperity.  He was a man who in luxuriousness of living exceeded all other
persons.  Likewise there came Damasus, the son of Amyris, surnamed the Wise, a
native of Siris.  These two were the only suitors from Italy. From the Ionian
Gulf appeared Amphimnestus, the son of Epistrophus, an Epidamnian; from
Aetolia Males, the brother of that Titormus who excelled all the Greeks in
strength, and who wishing to avoid his fellow-men, withdrew himself into the
remotest parts of the Aetolian territory.  From the Peloponnese came several -
Leocedes, son of that Pheidon, king of the Argives, who established weights
and measures throughout the Peloponnese, and was the most insolent of all the
Grecians - the same who drove out the Elean directors of the games, and
himself presided over the contests at Olympia - Leocedes, I say, appeared,
this Pheidon's son; and likewise Amiantus, son of Lycurgus, an Arcadian of the
city of Trapezus; Laphanes, an Azenian of Paeus, whose father, Euphorion, as
the story goes in Arcadia, entertained the Dioscuri ^1 at his residence, and
thenceforth kept open house for all comers; and lastly, Onomastus, the son of
Agaeus, a native of Elis.  These four came from the Peloponnese.  From Athens
there arrived Megacles, the son of that Alcmaeon who visited Croesus, and
Tisander's son, Hippoclides, the wealthiest and handsomest of the Athenians.
There was likewise one Euboean, Lysanias, who came from Eretria, then a
flourishing city.  From Thessaly came Diactorides, a Cranonian, of the race of
the Scopadae; and Alcon arrived from the Molossians.  This was the list of the
suitors.

[Footnote 1: Castor and Pollux, "the great twin brethren, to whom the Dorians
pray." - E. H. B.]

     128. Now when they were all come, and the day appointed had arrived,
Clisthenes first of all inquired of each concerning his country and his
family; after which he kept them with him a year, and made trial of their
manly bearing, their temper, their accomplishments, and their disposition,
sometimes drawing them apart for converse, sometimes bringing them all
together.  Such as were still youths he took with him from time to time to the
gymnasia; but the greatest trial of all was at the banquet-table. During the
whole period of their stay he lived with them as I have said; and, further,
from first to last he entertained them sumptuously.  Somehow or other the
suitors who came from Athens pleased him the best of all; and of these
Hippoclides, Tisander's son, was specially in favour, partly on account of his
manly bearing, and partly also because his ancestors were of kin to the
Corinthian Cypselids.

     129. When at length the day arrived which had been fixed for the
espousals, and Clisthenes had to speak out and declare his choice, he first of
all made a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, and held a banquet, whereat he
entertained all the suitors and the whole people of Sicyon. After the feast
was ended, the suitors vied with each other in music and in speaking on a
given subject.  Presently, as the drinking advanced, Hippoclides, who quite
dumbfoundered the rest, called aloud to the flute- player, and bade him strike
up a dance; which the man did, and Hippoclides danced to it.  And he fancied
that he was dancing excellently well; but Clisthenes, who was observing him,
began to misdoubt the whole business. Then Hippoclides, after a pause, told an
attendant to bring in a table; and when it was brought, he mounted upon it and
danced first of all some Laconian figures, then some Attic ones; after which
he stood on his head upon the table, and began to toss his legs about.
Clisthenes, notwithstanding that he now loathed Hippoclides for a son-in-law,
by reason of his dancing and his shamelessness, still, as he wished to avoid
an outbreak, had restrained himself during the first and likewise during the
second dance; when, however, he saw him tossing his legs in the air, he could
no longer contain himself, but cried out, "Son of Tisander, thou hast danced
thy wife away!" "What does Hippoclides care?" was the other's answer.  And
hence the proverb arose.

     130. Then Clisthenes commanded silence, and spake thus before the
assembled company: -

     "Suitors of my daughter, well pleased am I with you all; and right
willingly, if it were possible, would I content you all, and not by making
choice of one appear to put a slight upon the rest.  But as it is out of my
power, seeing that I have but one daughter, to grant to all their wishes, I
will present to each of you whom I must needs dismiss a talent of silver, for
the honour that you have done me in seeking to ally yourselves with my house,
and for your long absence from your homes.  But my daughter, Agarista, I
betroth to Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, to be his wife, according to the
usage and wont of Athens."

     Then Megacles expressed his readiness; and Clisthenes had the marriage
solemnised.

     131. Thus ended the affair of the suitors; and thus the Alcmaeonidae came
to be famous throughout the whole of Greece.  The issue of this marriage was
the Clisthenes - so named after his grandfather the Sicyonian - who made the
tribes at Athens, and set up the popular government. ^1 Megacles had likewise
another son, called Hippocrates, whose children were a Megacles and an
Agarista, the latter named after Agarista the daughter of Clisthenes.  She
married Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron; and when she was with child by him
had a dream, wherein she fancied that she was delivered of a lion; after
which, within a few days, she bore Xanthippus a son, to wit, Pericles.

[Footnote 1: Supra, v. 69.]

     132. After the blow struck at Marathon, Miltiades, who was previously
held in high esteem by his countrymen, increased yet more in influence. Hence,
when he told them that he wanted a fleet of seventy ships, ^2 with an armed
force, and money, without informing them what country he was going to attack,
but only promising to enrich them if they would accompany him, seeing that it
was a right wealthy land, where they might easily get as much gold as they
cared to have - when he told them this, they were quite carried away, and gave
him the whole armament which he required.

[Footnote 2: Seventy ships appear to have been the full complement of the
Athenian navy, until the time when the number was raised by Themistocles to
200 (vide supra, ch. 89, and infra. vii. 144).  Miltiades therefore took the
whole Athenian navy on this expedition.]

     133. So Miltiades, having got the armament, sailed against Paros, with
the object, as he alleged, of punishing the Parians for having gone to war
with Athens, inasmuch as a trireme of theirs had come with the Persian fleet
to Marathon.  This, however, was a mere pretence; the truth was, that
Miltiades owed the Parians a grudge, because Lysagoras, the son of Tisias, who
was a Parian by birth, had told tales against him to Hydarnes the Persian.
Arrived before the place against which his expedition was designed, he drove
the Parians within their walls, and forthwith laid siege to the city.  At the
same time he sent a herald to the inhabitants, and required of them a hundred
talents, threatening that, if they refused, he would press the siege, and
never give it over till the town was taken.  But the Parians, without giving
his demand a thought, proceeded to use every means that they could devise for
the defence of their city, and even invented new plans for the defence of
their city, and even invented new plans for the purpose, one of which was, by
working at night to raise such parts of the wall as were likely to be carried
by assault to double their former height.

     134. Thus far all the Greeks agree in their accounts of this business;
what follows is related upon the testimony of the Parians only. Miltiades had
come to his wit's end, when one of the prisoners, a woman named Timo, who was
by birth a Parian, and had held the office of under- priestess in the temple
of the infernal goddesses, came and conferred with him.  This woman, they say,
being introduced into the presence of Miltiades, advised him, if he set great
store by the capture of the place, to do something which she could suggest to
him.  When therefore she had told him what it was she meant, he betook himself
to the hill which lies in front of the city, and there leapt the fence
enclosing the precinct of Ceres Thesmophorus, ^1 since he was not able to open
the door.  After leaping into the place he went straight to the sanctuary,
intending to do something within it - either to remove some of the holy things
which it was not lawful to stir, or to perform some act or other, I cannot say
what - and had just reached the door, when suddenly a feeling of horror came
upon him, ^2 and he returned back the way he had come; but in jumping down
from the outer wall, he strained his thigh, or, as some say, struck the ground
with his knee.

[Footnote 1: Supra, ch. 16.]

[Footnote 2: He would feel that he was doing an act of great impiety, since
the sanctuaries of Ceres were not to be entered by men.]

     135. So Miltiades returned home sick, without bringing the Athenians any
money, and without conquering Paros, having done no more than to besiege the
town for six-and-twenty days, and ravage the remainder of the island.  The
Parians, however, when it came to their knowledge that Timo, the
under-priestess of the goddesses, had advised Miltiades what he should do,
were minded to punish her for her crime; they therefore sent messengers to
Delphi, as soon as the siege was at an end, and asked the god if they should
put the under-priestess to death.  "She had discovered," they said, "to the
enemies of her country how they might bring it into subjection, and had
exhibited to Miltiades mysteries which it was not lawful for a man to know."
But the Pythoness forbade them, and said, "Timo was not in fault; 'twas
decreed that Miltiades should come to an unhappy end; and she was sent to lure
him to his destruction." Such was the answer given to the Parians by the
Pythoness.

     136. The Athenians, upon the return of Miltiades from Paros, had much
debate concerning him; and Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, who spoke more
freely against him than all the rest, impleaded him before the people, and
brought him to trial for his life, on the charge of having dealt deceitfully
with the Athenians.  Miltiades, though he was present in court, did not speak
in his own defence; for his thigh had begun to mortify, and disabled him from
pleading his cause.  He was forced to lie on a couch while his defence was
made by his friends, who dwelt at most length on the fight at Marathon, while
they made mention also of the capture of Lemnos, telling how Miltiades took
the island, and, after executing vengeance on the Pelasgians, gave up his
conquest to Athens. The judgment of the people was in his favour so far as to
spare his life; but for the wrong he had done them they fined him fifty
talents. ^1 Soon afterwards his thigh completely gangrened and mortified: and
so Miltiades died; and the fifty talents were paid by his son Cimon.

[Footnote 1: Fifty talents (above Pounds 12,000) is certainly an enormous sum
for the time.]